COMMUNITIES hit by floods are demanding a ministerial visit after funding for a multi-million pound alleviation project was delayed.

Town councillors in Brompton said residents were desperate for the scheme to go ahead and are calling for a minister from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to come to the village and see the problems at first hand.

The decision to withdraw funding for the Northallerton, Brompton and Romanby scheme was announced by Defra last month.

Brompton Parish and Hambleton District councillor Bert Langthorne said: "We are getting to a serious situation where people's livelihoods are at stake. There are people in their 70s and 80s that are desperate for it and we have got to make a move."

Coun Langthorne, who was speaking at this week's meeting of Brompton Parish Council, added: "I am starting my 45th year on the parish council. It has been promised all my lifetime that we were going to have this flood alleviation scheme."

He had called for a public inquiry into the decision, but the council decided to invite a minister to the village first for a site visit.

Defra told the county council it could not provide the necessary grant in this financial year because the funds available for local authority schemes were already "over-committed".

The planned scheme would see embankments built to hold back flood waters from Turker Beck, at Northallerton, and Ing Beck, Winton Beck and North Beck, at Brompton.

Defra and the Environment Agency have agreed that the scheme should retain its approved status, but be deferred until funds are available.

County councillor Peter Sowray, executive member for environmental services, said council officers have now been told that funding will not be available until 2008 at the earliest.

"It would be wonderful if they could get a minister there to keep the pressure on," he said.

Peter Holmes, area flood defence manager, said the Environment Agency was committed to the scheme. "A lot of work has gone into it so we don't want to see it shelved," he said.

A spokeswoman for Defra said communities were welcome to invite ministers for a visit, but added: "It depends on timing and it depends on commitments."